A Broadway pop-up is helping clear following a long-ago Broadway closure (Images: CHS)

One outcome of the ongoing wave of development reshaping Capitol Hill is the occasional bargain on rent. Landlords, faced with both long-empty and newly-inspired-to-be-empty retail spaces due to impending development, sometimes make their storefronts available at steep discounts.

That retail phenomenon — and another more familiar one — lead Atieno to pick up one of those empty Capitol Hill retail spaces to put to rest her former Broadway venture. You’ll find her Beautiful Gifts liquidating the stock of the former Uzuli in the old Del Teet building next to Dick’s Drive-In.

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“My goal is for everything to go to beautiful homes,” Atieno told CHS about her brief return from Kenya to clear out storage she has been storing here in the States since she closed her African boutique on Broadway in 2010. You might also remember her from her days in the Broadway Market back when it had funky and independent kiosks and carts selling a variety of knick-knacks and creations.

She picked up the 5,749 square-foot Broadway storefront for somewhere around the listed $9,582 per month lease the agents were asking for.

Atieno said she spends her days now in Kenya running an NGO helping orphans after returning there when Uzuli closed.

Here’s what’s next for the Del Teet building

Inside the Del Teet building that was most recently home to Hollywood Video and will soon be turned into apartment lofts, Atieno has stacked the space with statues, masks, jewelry and clothing. Whatever storage facility she was utilizing surely has a few open berths now. Discounts range from 50 to 70% and will continue to drop through the summer until the pop-up fades away and Atieno returns to Kenya. In the meantime, take a chance on dropping by and finding something to add a little Africa to your living space — at a steep discount.